Jan
14
There are 26 Madrids in the world!
Madrid is the capital of Spain. Easy beezy. But did you know that there towns by the same name in other parts of the world? In fact, there are 26 “Madrids” in 13 different countries, from the United States to South Africa. There’s a funny news report about all the various Madrids in the newspaper today. It’s not clear how all of these locales got their distinctive name. In some cases, it’s probably because of the one-time reach of the Spanish empire and/or immigration from Spain to these various locations. It’s not at all clear how the Madrid name landed in parts of the midwestern U.S.
Here’s a roundup of a few:
Next to the beach: Madrid, Phillipines
Near a volcano: Madrid, Guatemala
A ghost town version with only 149 residentes: Madrid, New Mexico in the U.S.
An affordable Madrid where you can buy an entire house for $92,000 (65,000 euros): Madrid, Iowa, USA.
The northernmost Madrid: Madrid, Sweden
The southernmost Madrid: Madrid, South Africa
Wow, I didn’t know there were so many Madrids. Some of those are far out of the reach of the former Spanish Empire.
David,
Yeah, weird, huh? The Spanish newspaper I got this info from doesn’t have the story available online and I’ve been trying to find more info about some of these places but with no luck so far with a cursory Google search. If I find out more, I will amend this post. Thanks for commenting!
There’s a Madrid in western Nebraska. You can buy a house for less than $30,000. And it’s pronounced with the stress on the first syllable.
Wow, Jan, I didn’t know there were still communities in the U.S. where you could still buy a house for less than $50,000. Good to know!